When I say dead users, I mean ones who have been banned, suspended, or deleted (probably after they got banned). I see this so often when browsing posts, and it is so reflective of the problems I have been faced with as well. I’ll be scrolling through a post, and sometimes unironically like 50% of all comments have the stupid little profile picture with its back turned, and when I hover over it it has either been suspended or deleted.
I have been having major issues where I’ve basically been permanently wiped off the platform over some bullshit permaban and can’t get it appealed, and it is just shocking that so many other people are obviously just getting completely swept away by these same bullshit bans. How is Reddit going to survive like this? It’s to the point where any sort of long-term engagement on the site just seems impossible because soon enough the CIA-level, all seeing AI will catch you in its net and then you’re done.
Even if they miraculously change their system to not have the world’s most oppressive ban system, what happens to everyone who’s already been banned? Will a decent percentage of the entire platform just be fucked for life because they were on the platform at the wrong place and the wrong time?
Why is this surprising?
There is a life cycle to social media.
Reddit is approaching Myspace levels of out-of-touch. But that’s to be expected. Reddit sold out and went public corporation. That means everything that they do is 100% centered around making profit for shareholders. A board of rich assholes listen to the same tech assholes that killed off every single other media platform in existence. Why? To make a buck. To squeeze the penny so hard, at the expense of content, users, posts, subreddits, that the penny squeezes out an extra $0.0000001.
Content is ruined, but who cares? Another nerd will come along and make another one. Businessmen don’t care about the content of a bunch of randos. They care about gutting everything and selling pieces of it off for as much as possible, then eventually selling it off to a control-freak billionaire.
So I get what you’re saying, but unfortunately Reddit hasn’t reached Myspace levels of dead yet. It’s still the 9th most visited website in the whole world, and I unfortunately don’t think that’s gonna change anytime soon
If anything, it’s growing and taking on a new audience. Reddit was semi-niche in the years before, and is now becoming mainstream.
Who’s using it? Are they just part of a gelatinous scrolling app crowd that has no demands?